Adios, Morelia

The time has come to leave Morelia and move on to explore other parts of Mexico before returning home. We had our last interactions with students on Thursday and said our goodbyes. Shayna and I had a fun, and very late, night out on the town that night with some of our students. We went to an eclectic restaurant/bar and an even more eclectic club where there was a band playing cover songs on request interspersed with dance music. It was nice to unwind and see another side of these great people we've been working with. We had many, many laughs.

Tomorrow Shayna and I will head to Guanajuato, a couple hours north of here, and spend at least two nights there. From there we will likely make a stop in San Miguel de Allende, a very popular tourist town. We are told there are something like ten or twelve thousand retired Americans living there, which is normally not a selling point when traveling, but we hear it's also quite beautiful. We may add another town to our list, and eventually will make our way back to Mexico City to spend our last days with my boyfriend's family and see a few more of the sights. It is safe to say that both Shayna and I are looking forward to getting home.

The storms here during the rainy season are epic. We've gotten pretty good at reading the weather to know how much time we have before we need to find shelter. This storm was rolling in the other day as we were heading out for lunch.

Forgot to reserve your mariachi band? No problem! Just drive around the streets of Morelia and you will find groups of musicians on various street corners waiting to be hired.

Telma, one of my students, doles out champurrado for us on the last day of school. It's a thick chocolatey drink made with corn and a hint of cinnamon. Delicious.

It was also one of my student's birthday on the last day we went in. Apparently in Mexico the tradition is for the birthday girl or boy to lean in and take a bite of their birthday cake while someone smashes their face into it. Here Monserrat shows off her lovely cake face. The cake was delicious, by the way. It was tres leches, which may be my new favorite dessert.

Last night we went up into the hills to have a nice dinner out. The view of downtown from there is spectacular.

Woohoo!

I am HOME!! And I should be sleeping, considering I only got maybe 3 or 4 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours or so. But at the moment I'm pretty wired. Ah, jet lag! All my flights took off and landed without a hitch. There was no overbooking and in fact there were plenty of free spaces in both business and first class. First class is particularly sweet on international flights because you can actually turn the seat into a BED! I wish they held some random lottery for these extra spaces: "The following passengers are being upgraded to first class for this flight: seat 17A, 35C, etc. etc." How sweet would that be? But I guess you don't want to upset the very high-paying customers up there already or upset the folks who wouldn't get chosen.

I'm not sure if I'm all that coherent right now, so I guess I'll try to get some sleep. Just a quick note to say that I'm soooo happy to be home. The sight of Dunkin' Donuts at the airport brought a grin to my face. And I'm currently falling in love all over again with my MacBook. Was the screen always this ginormous?? Also, how exciting is it to be able to brush your teeth with the tap water... better yet, you can even drink it! :D

A step up

I'm now in Hoi An, about halfway up the coast of Vietnam, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and therefore a very put together town. This place is by far the most charming little place I've seen yet in Vietnam, so I think I'll be riding out Tet here. Unfortunately I think all of the tailor shops close down tomorrow for at least four days, which means I likely won't be able to get any clothes made, which isn't necessarily a bad thing as it means I won't be spending the money. And frankly the deals aren't that fantastic. It's incredible how many tailors there are here, though. Much like the malls in Bangkok, I have no idea how all of these places stay in business.

I'm now rooming with another American, Lizz, whom I met in Dalat. She's from "the other Portland," Oregon, and is a university student who's been studying international development and Vietnamese. We're staying at what is probably the cheapest place in Hoi An, technically part of the hosteling network, paying $12 a night for a room with a fan and cable TV. Not bad. The weather here is pretty darn hot and humid, which is a change from the much cooler Dalat. As they say, "It isn't the heat, it's the humidity," and Hoi An has plenty of that, meaning that you're pretty much sweating as soon as you step out of the shower. I think when I get home I'm gonna do some sort of detox and spa treatment to try and wash away all the ill effects of this trip.

Speaking of which, I had plenty of time during the 20-hour bus journey from Dalat to Hoi An to think about the things I'm most looking forward to when I return. The countdown has begun. In no particular order, here they are:

1- Whole grains. White rice and white bread reign supreme over here. Utterly lacking in nutritional value and just not good for your system.

2 - Grocery stores. I get the whole argument of specialized shops over the big box stores, but there's no matching the convenience, abundance, and quality of products available at American grocery stores.

3 - Toilet paper. No longer will I have to carry around a roll of TP or a package of tissues with me everywhere I go. That's always the great mystery when traveling through Asia - what kind of toilet will it be (usually a squat toilet) and will there be toilet paper (usually no).

4 - Going to the movies. I'm kind of a movie junkie and I've totally missed watching movies. I haven't been to one since I saw New Moon in Bangkok. On the bus to Dalat the other day they showed the movie 2012. For a moment I was completely transported and almost forgot where I was. Unforunately the movie was dubbed in Vietnamese. Dubbing itself is bad enough, but this one was dubbed entirely by one woman. Oddly enough they also didn't completely record over the original soundtrack, so I was able to strain to hear the English. Just not the same, though.

There's more, of course, but those are the big ones. :)


On the bus ride from Dalat to Nha Trang.


One of the shops in Hoi An.


I love all the mannequins and mannequin parts everywhere here.